Spiders
by lashadas
Summary: Rose Weasley is not a coward. RosexScorpius
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, another Harry Potter Next Generation one shot. This time it's RosexScorpius.**

**I liked writing this. I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. THESE ARE ALL CHARACTERS OF J.K ROWLING.**

**except for my two OC's, Annie and Lionel.**

**Enjoy**

Rose Weasley is not a coward. So much so, that she is barely afraid of anything. She is not afraid of heights, as she rides a broom for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as their Keeper. She is not afraid of the dark, as she learned from her mother's stories that that monsters did not always exist in darkness, but rather in people themselves.

One thing, however, that Rose Weasley fears, is spiders.

It was no different whatsoever on an afternoon when she saw a spider sitting carefully on a library shelf. The book she was retrieving was clutched close to her chest, and her knuckles were turning white against the blue cover as she screamed. The scream echoed throughout the entire library, and it was surely heard by everyone.

Particularly, the blonde haired boy in the aisle next to her, who immediately jumped up at the sound and found a frightened red haired girl pressed flat against the shelves, her eyes bright and blue underneath her fluffy hair and her many freckles apparent on her pale skin. She was tall, and her limbs were awkwardly splayed out as she attempted to get as far away as possible.

Scorpius Malfoy smirked as he looked at the reason for her fear.

The little spider seemed to be equally frightened, as it stood for a long moment before scuttling between two books and disappearing. Rose relaxed for a moment, but the book stayed firm against her and her knuckles remained a bright shade of white.

"So, Weasley is afraid of spiders." Scorpius smirked, turning to the girl. She looked over at him, as though just realizing he was there.

"What an excellent reaction from a Gryffindor." He said.

Rose huffed out a held in breath, and it blew parts of her hair up into the air and down again. It caught his eye, and he could not look away when she tucked a few stray pieces behind her ear. Her cheeks turned a deep red as she glared at him. He raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming on his face.

"My dad has a thing about spiders, is all." Rose said. "It's just…a typical reaction, I suppose." She nervously pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and bit her lip, her eyes straying to the place where the spider had been.

Scorpius stared at her then, really taking her in. Sure, he knew her, and her cousin was one of his best friends, but this was something that made his heart beat frantically against his chest. It was new, and he felt a nervous shudder run through his body.

"What do you care?" Rose asked, turning to look at him. Her eyes were lit up with something like annoyance…and embarrassment.

He looked her in the eyes. They were blue, just like his, but warmer somehow and they were gleaming with something more like knowledge and maturity. He noticed the freckles splayed across her cheeks and the way her lip curled under her teeth and made a dimple visible in her chin.

"I heard a damsel in distress, Weasley." He said, the smirk returning to his face.

Rose narrowed her brow further. "You wouldn't even know what to do with a damsel in distress if you got one." She said.

Scorpius stepped closer to her; he felt the need to be nearer, and wanted suddenly to touch her but he gripped his hands in fists to resist the urge. She raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her through hooded eyelids. He was closer to her than he had ever been.

Rose felt a small flutter of something in her stomach the moment he stepped close. He was all blonde hair and smirks. She stared into his eyes, and they made her wonder how they got to be such an icy blue. And she felt this warm feeling as though someone had poured a bucket of hot water over head and it trickled all the way down to her toes as he stared back.

"I'm here, aren't I?" he stated, his hand reaching up and lightly gracing her arm.

Rose turned a deep shade of red, and the book fell out of her hands. She cursed as Scorpius stepped back and reached down to get the book for her. As soon as the moment began, it was over and they were left with an awkward silence and a slightly abused Astronomy book.

"Don't play games with me Malfoy, I'm not one of your little fan club whores." She said, and glanced up at him with a light like fire in her eyes.

Malfoy smirked.

"What in the Devil is going on over here?" the librarian emerged, books ever present around her, floating as though by some invisible string. They seemed to gravitate around her, like they were planets and she was a star.

"It's nothing. Sorry, I saw…a spider." Rose said, turning to the woman.

The woman stared incredulously at them, her hair coming out at certain ends of her bun and her robes in disarray from the run over to the shelves. The Hogwarts Library was a big place, Rose figured.

"Get out. Go somewhere else to be loud and obnoxious, will you?" she hissed.

Rose placed the book in Scorpius' hands and walked away, her head spinning and mind racing from his nearness. It seemed to be that he was still in front of her, and she could feel the heat that radiated off him. She traced a finger across the part of her arm where he touched, but it did not feel the same. She remembered the shiver that ran through her and the cold caress of his finger seemed to be etched into her skin.

And for the next couple of days, she could not stop thinking about Scorpius Malfoy. The way he would run a hand through his hair during potions, and how he would shield his eyes with his hand when he wrote notes in the great hall just made her think why she never noticed it before.

"He's beautiful." She whispered a few days later, sitting in the common room. Her long lanky legs were splayed on the armrest of the couch and her wand was tucked behind her ear amidst the frizz of red hair she had pinned back with a quill.

Annie, her best friend and fellow Gryffindor, lifted her head from the book she was reading and gave her a look of confusion.

"Who?" she asked.

Rose realized she said it out loud and quickly returned to writing her notes for Care of Magical Creatures, brushing Annie off with a loud sigh and, "Nothing.", which was muttered with frustration and a hint of longing.

Surely she couldn't let anyone know that Scorpius Malfoy was the object of her fancy. He was already half the school's obsession, that being most of the Slytherin house girls and the Ravenclaws simply swooned over him.

Rose wouldn't let the boy get to her. But Annie wouldn't let it slide.

"Who's beautiful, Rose?" Annie asked, placing her book on the coffee table in front of her. It was then that Albus walked in through the portrait door with Lionel.

The two heard Annie and proceeded to skip over with questions.

"Hey, Rose, what's going on? Someone's beautiful?" Albus asked as a grin spread across his face. He looked just like Uncle Harry in the moment that she had to double take before she narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

"Shut up, Albus." She said.

"I'll tell you, that Lexi Johnson is certainly getting better day by day." Lionel said, looking over at Albus and then glancing slightly at Annie.

Annie shushed him and turned to Rose. "C'mon, Rose. We're you're best friends." She said.

Rose grew frustrated at the guilt trip and threw her book down onto the couch as she stood up with rigid limbs and a great red shade appearing across her cheeks. The boys knew what that meant and backed up, shrinking into the couch. Annie simply stood up and calmly took her arm.

"Let's go up to the dorm, Rose." She said. It was quiet as she rushed past the groups of students lounging around the room, clearly hearing the conversation going on and equally interested.

"Annie, it's not really a big deal." Rose said once they entered the room.

But her friend knew her too well and simply looked at her and stated, "Its Scorpius isn't it?"

Rose blinked.

"I've seen you watching him for the past couple of weeks." Annie brushed a hand through her dark hair. "He's been looking at you, too."

Rose swallowed, the dry of her throat calming slightly. She looked down and at her red shoes that stood out like a sun against the dark threads of carpet. She shook her head, giving up.

"Yeah." She said.

It was a moment of silence where Annie was waiting for her to say more. Like maybe an explanation as to why a Weasley would like a Malfoy?

Were there any reasons at all?

"I don't know." Rose said. "We were in the library the other day, and there was a spider. You know how I'm deathly afraid of spiders. He came over and the spider went away. He looked at me strangely and I looked at him and he was…," she struggled for a word. "Well, he was different and I know that sounds strange, but you have to understand."

Annie raised an eyebrow. And then laughed.

Loudly.

So loudly, that the students in the common room could hear it. And Rose angrily clenched her fists.

"It's not funny, this is serious." She said.

"Rose." Annie said as her laughs died down to a small gasp of breath. "You like Malfoy now because he saved you from a spider?"

She realized then that it couldn't have been something as simple as that. Throughout their many years at Hogwarts, Scorpius and Rose had not been on completely agreeable terms. Their constant fighting seemed to unnerve Albus in fourth year, so he simply stopped speaking to the both of them until they stopped.

It was effective and they simply got along to please Albus.

She still hated how he thought he was better than everyone else. And she hated how he called her 'Weasley' and never by her actual name. She suddenly hated how she hated all these things about him when he had so many characteristics she found fascinating.

"Well, he didn't exactly save me." She murmured. "But he was there."

"Oh, shit." Annie said her tone turning serious. "You really like him, Rosie?"

Rose shook her head. She didn't know. How could she know that?

"I don't know!" she shouted, frustration leaking through her voice and resonating through the dormitory. Annie waited a moment before speaking.

"Well, then, whats got you in such a twitch?" Annie asked.

She smiled at her friend, watching as she gazed helplessly back at her. The confusion was written all over her face and it was a strange thing to see on Rose Weasley. She was strong and assertive, and this was something new.

Something terrifying for her, I'll bet, Annie thought.

Rose turned away from the humored expression of her best friend and recalled the feeling of looking into his eyes, and that feeling made her heart pound. It was strange. She began to laugh.

Annie followed. "Really, Rose? A spider?" she asked, and Rose hit her shoulder. "Ow! Damn it, Rose."

"Stop laughing." She said.

"I'll laugh if I damn well want to." Annie said, shoving Rose out of the rooms and back down the stairs.

They exchanged looks with the boys when they sat back down. Albus clasped his hands together and leaned towards the two of them, his smile bright and filled with mischief.

"So, who's beautiful now?" he asked.

"We were talking while you were gone, and concluded it was probably me." Lionel smirked, his joke obvious as well as his arrogance.

"Shut up, Leo." Annie said. "You're not all that, and besides, it doesn't concern you or anyone else you know, so shove it."

Lionel feigned hurt and moved over to her side of the couch. "But, Annie, love, you must find me the slightest bit handsome. I mean, we are getting married once you admit your feelings for me." He drew closer, and Annie hit his side with her heavy book she was reading earlier.

Albus and Rose shared a laugh. Rose looked over at her cousin and gave him a look that meant, 'everything's-okay-don't-worry.'

And he nodded.

Rose Weasley is not afraid of heights, and she is not afraid of the dark. But for some reason, spiders, and Scorpius Malfoy are among the things she fears the most. However, Scorpius Malfoy is not something, she thought, that she could entirely stay away from.

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, thanks for all the reviews last chapter, they were really appreciated. :) This was originally going to be a one shot, but after reading some of your comments and going over the story, I realized it needed to be finished. So here's chapter two.**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER J.K ROWLING DOES. **

**Although, I do own Annie and Lionel, my OC's.**

**Enjoy.**

The next couple of days were filled with rain spattering across the windows of the castle. It was in the constant dreary mood of the castle, where students were still coming out of their summer haze in which Rose Weasley continued to watch Scorpius Malfoy. He was always surrounded by people, she noticed. The only time she ever really saw him alone was in the library when he studied, and even then groups of girls would eye him with ferocity, as though claiming him with their stare.

It wasn't like Rose had never noticed how handsome he was. But after their encounter at the library the week before, she saw him differently. Never before had she felt that way around anyone, she still felt strange fluttering in her stomach when she thought of his nearness and the silent words they exchanged. It was as though he had some strange effect on her, where she could not think clearly around him.

Especially the evenings they spent in the Grand Hall, where the candles hung along the ceiling as though by an invisible string and their group sat around doing homework. It was awkward, seeing Scorpius sitting with them and realizing what she felt about him. She secretly wondered, as the quill scratched along her parchment, if he thought the same thing.

Overall, study sessions with Scorpius included were strange in itself due to him being the one Slytherin amongst a group of Gryffindors. He had followed in his family's footsteps of becoming a Slytherin, and Rose vaguely remembered seeing him step up to the stool where he sat to receive the Sorting Hat on his head. She was instantly reminded by her father's stories, and realized that the boy was the son of Draco Malfoy. But she found out long ago, when Albus and Scorpius became friends that Scorpius was nothing like his father.

"Rose, did you get the answer to this essay question?" Annie asked, pointing to a line on her book.

Rose was brought out of her thoughts and forced to turn and help the girl with her potions homework.

"So, Rose, are you going to try and talk to him?" Annie asked. She had a strange glint in her eye, showing she was highly amused at Rose's newfound feelings for Scorpius Malfoy.

Rose narrowed her brow, and shushed her violently. The boys all looked up for a moment, and then returned to their circle of Defense Against the Dark Arts circle, where books were piled high and papers crinkled underneath their elbows.

"Annie, shut up." Rose gave her frustrated stare. Annie laughed.

"Well, I really think you two should start talking more. Maybe it'll lead to more moments like in the library." Annie said. "You know, spiders and damsels in distress and all." she burst out laughing and it was Lionel who turned and began to gain interest in their conversation.

"What are you two laughing about?" He inquired.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Obviously there is only one person laughing here."

Lionel slid down the table until he was sitting in front of them, his blonde hair a curly mess on his head and his glasses slightly askew. What a weird guy, Rose thought.

"What is up with you two lately?" he asked. "You guys used to always tell me and Albus what was going on, and now you just keep secrets."

Annie sighed loudly at this, her laughter clearly having stopped. "We have not been keeping secrets, Leo." She said. "Honestly, it's just girl stuff, don't worry about it."

Lionel quirked an eyebrow at her, clearly confused at what she meant. "Secrets aren't great for keeping. Come on, Annie." He whined. His lips began to pout and he gave a steady look of mischievousness, "Besides, you look like you're planning something mischievous. I want in."

Annie raised an eyebrow, and Rose simply fumed at her. Don't do it, she thought.

"Really? You can keep a secret, Leo?" Annie asked. "Because if you can, we'll talk about it tonight in the common room."

Lionel grinned, and Rose grew even more frustrated. "Annie!" she shouted, but her plan to yell at her loudly was stopped by the sudden nearness of Albus and Scorpius. They had decided to join in on the conversation.

"What are you yelling about now, Weasley?" Scorpius asked, leaning over her shoulder and staring down at her parchment.

Rose sat frozen while Annie gently nudged her foot against hers underneath the table. "I'm not yelling, Malfoy." Rose said. She didn't understand how she could speak now that he was so close to her, she could smell a faint scent of soap and mint, she could see his eyebrow lifted just below the bangs of his hair, and his eyes seemed to be challenging her.

Rose Weasley did not back down from a challenge.

"Than what is that loud wailing you seem to call speaking?" He asked.

He looked down at her, and noticed the particular frizz of her hair due to the rain outside. In the light, it made it look like a red halo was surrounding her pale face. Despite this, there was a look of anger in her eyes. He then realized he probably went too far. She began to open her mouth, but Albus interrupted.

"Will you two cut it out?" He gave them a look of exasperation. "You fight like a married couple."

Rose immediately blushed, as did Scorpius. It was Lionel who said something next, his voice filled with a teasing tone.

"Oh, this is a development." He then immediately yelled out when Annie's foot came in contact with his lower leg.

"Don't talk so loudly about it, you idiot." Annie said.

Lionel gave her a frustrated look, nursing his leg with his hands and then he looked back towards Rose. She had turned back to her paper and was working away at the next paragraph of her essay. She had a deep shade of red spread across her cheeks as Albus stole Scorpius away once more to ask him questions about Potions.

Lionel knew it when he saw it, and Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley were just beginning to realize their feelings for each other. He looked over at Annie, who was studying him with a look that could only be called caution, and he grinned at her. She looked away, flustered, and returned to her textbook.

Right about time too, he thought to himself.

That night, in the common room, Lionel and Annie met near the fireplace. The rain was still drizzling outside, making soft pattering noises against the windowsill. It made Annie feel cold, and she had on a big sweater over her uniform shirt. Lionel appeared once he noticed Annie was alone and stalked over to her, his hands deep in his pockets.

"So, Rose fancies Scorpius." Lionel stated. It was more of an observational fact than a question.

Annie nodded. "I think he fancies her too." She said.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Lionel asked.

This was getting interesting. He knew Annie Noble was not a risk taker. In fact, despite her ability to maintain witty banter with him, she had no skills in flirting or romance. Lionel was not one to make things seem better than they were, and the fact that Annie was an intelligent witch did not make her brilliant in everything. In fact, he recalled the year before, and the look in her eye the day that Oliver Springs had asked her to Hogsmeade. It was as though he had two heads.

Even now, in the light of the fireplace, she had that expression. It was something he noticed she got when she was thinking really hard about what to say. She'd done it all the years he'd known her.

"I think we should interfere." She said, finally turning to him.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

She sighed, loudly and settled further into her chair. Her dark hair fell forward into her face and she narrowed her brow. "I mean," she started. "That we should infiltrate their relationship and sort of…interfere."

"You mean, get them together." Lionel retorted dryly.

"Yes, I mean get them together. They're not going to do it themselves are they?"

Lionel watched as she picked at the hem of her sleeve and smiled. Annie Noble, sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and now she was showing her wild streak. He leaned back in his chair and drank in the moment. Her awkwardness, which was comforting to him, as all the girls he ever hung around despite Rose were so sure of what they wanted from him and he focused on the sound of the fireplace flickering beside them.

"Alright." He said after a moment.

Annie looked at him, her eyes wide. She was excited.

"Really?" she asked.

He laughed and shrugged. "What do we have to lose right?"

Annie leapt out of her chair and smothered him with a hug. "You have no idea how great this is going to turn out. Rose will be so happy, you'll see." She said.

"Yeah." He tried to grasp on to the feeling of her arms around his and the warmth she radiated before she finally let go.

"So, now we need an action plan. It's a good thing we have magic, because this is going to be tricky." She smiled down at him, and he could not say no when she pulled out some parchment and a quill.

Rose sat in the library, planning to do at least a little bit of work for Transfiguration. But the foot long essay that was due Monday found no way to write itself out in her head. So she sat, in her favorite place by the window. It was one of the many windows, but all around her were shelves of books and the only light came from the two candles flickering above her. It was comforting in this particular place.

Outside, it was lightly raining but the view of the forest was nice. It calmed her, and she was sure that the books were calming as well. Her mother had often read to her as a child and the love of reading seemed to be deeply ingrained into her heart. Not to mention, Rose had picked up a few of her mother's skills at Charms as well.

Her traits from her father, the red hair and freckles as well as the long gangly limbs, had grown on her. Especially in the past few years, her clumsiness had let up a lot and she had come to like her freckles. They were the trademark of a Weasley, which she was proud of.

"Did you want to spend all night in the corner?"

She snapped her head up from the cool window and looked at the sudden intruder. He stood there, his robes gone, just his uniform slightly askew from extensive studying. She noted the bags under his eyes. Were N.E. really getting to him? They had started studying for them already, and the homework was rather extensive.

"What is it with you seeming to find me in random corners and addressing me with questions?" she chided. Frankly, she was too tired to care about his comments.

"Would you prefer it if I didn't ask why you look so absorbed in your thoughts?" he asked, moving closer. His expression seemed like he was confused as well as to why he was there.

She wondered for a moment if he would sit down, and realized she wouldn't mind.

"How'd you know I was here?" she asked him.

"Well, I was talking to Lionel and he said that you were in the library. I worried for your safety, as I recall, last time you almost died from a rogue spider." His teasing voice made her smile.

She looked up at him and laughed. He was not expecting this, and laughed with her. A moment later, he was sitting across from her. The Hogwarts library was known for its narrow book aisles and extensive number of books. As he sat down, their legs touched closely together. She did not understand why he chose to sit so closely to her, and she almost blushed, but she realized the extensive number of books surrounding her left little room for anywhere else to sit.

Why should she blush over every single tiny moment they shared? It wasn't as though her feelings would mean anything in the end. She wasn't even sure how she felt for him. He was an enigma.

All those stories she'd heard from her mother about Scorpius' father; she almost did not want to believe that Scorpius could ever be like that. She suddenly realized that she knew nothing about him, and that he was currently a ghost lingering on the edges of her life. Never fully there, and never fully realized.

"Scorpius." She tested the name on her lips, and realized she barely ever called him that, especially without anger filling her every word.

He turned to her, slightly surprised but not angry or offended. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Do you think we could be friends?" She reached up to twirl a curl in her hand. It had been swept across her cheek all day, and it seemed to be the only thing to keep her occupied while Scorpius just looked at her.

"I thought we were already friends, Weasley." He said.

"But we fight."

"So?" He glared at her slightly, then. His crystal blue eyes piercing through hers and making her feel as though she was falling through the ground.

"So I thought that you hated me?" Rose tested; irritated that he would become so short with her.

"What would give me reason to hate you?" he asked her. But it seemed more like a test.

His eyes knew when they searched hers. He knew that she knew about his father, and she blinked a few times. She was a Gryffindor, and she was Rose Weasley. She could face Scorpius Malfoy.

"You're dad and my dad having their inconsistencies I suppose." She said, never deterring her gaze from the blonde haired boy in front of her.

He looked at her for a long moment, his hair a little messy and long, down to the top of his ears in fact. She didn't mind though, as she remembered a time when he kept a smoothed down hairstyle that was close cut, but this seemed more suited to him. She had a weird feeling in her stomach as he stared, and it rose to her throat where she gulped. He was making her nervous and she didn't like it.

"I don't think it should matter what our parents did." He said. "It shouldn't affect how we act around each other."

Rose stared at him more fully them, seeing him become a little more real before her eyes. Scorpius Malfoy believed that they were different from their parents; that they could be better. Rose blinked, her perspective shifting. They did not have to be like their parents at all, because they had the chance to make different decisions. She could be friends with whomever she chose, and while their father's feud had begun her anger towards him, it seemed foolish that something as simple as that could affect their chance at being friends.

After a moment of silence, where the only sound was their breathing and the rain against the window, Rose spoke.

"I actually kind of enjoy fighting with you." She said, a smile forming on her face.

He turned to look at her and smiled back. It seemed strange, to see him smiling at her so easily. Honestly, Scorpius could not reason as to why he was even doing it in the first place. Rose Weasley unnerved him to no end, as she was so different from all the other girls at Hogwarts. He had never met anyone who could make him so angry and amused at one time.

She stood up then, towering over him for a mere second before she extended a hand to him. He took it, and felt a rush of warmth spread throughout his hand. She helped him stand and began to pick up the books surrounding her. He helped her, and it was a simple and easy silence between the both of them. It was as though they could comfortably remain that way for a long time.

"So, you are safe then? No distress?" he teased, noticing the top of her cheeks turning red.

"None, whatsoever." She assured him, only slightly flustered at his tone.

He walked with her to the stairs leading to Gryffindor Tower, and she used a simple levitating charm to carry the heavier books up the staircase. She looked at him, standing on one step higher than he was and reaching his height.

"Well, goodnight. Thank you for making me realize how late it was." Rose said.

"No problem, Weasley." Scorpius gave a faint smile and turned to walk away.

His heart was beating a little more rapidly than normal and he could feel warmth spreading throughout him as he thought of their legs touching in the library. If he had turned around, he would have seen her walking up the staircase and looking over her shoulder as his footsteps faded away into the corridor. She would have hair like a halo, and freckles like splashes of paint on her skin.

He realized he may have more of an interest in Rose Weasley than ever before.

Two figures in the shadow of a doorway turned to each other and smiled.

"Do you think if we just let the git know where she is, he'll find her? Should we really be charming him to think he needs to talk to her?" Lionel whispered.

Annie nodded and her smile was unmistakable. "I told you, they like each other. All it takes is a little bit of pushing and a charm or two to make Scorpius think he needs to meet Annie."

Lionel looked down at the girl next to him, proud of her for finally doing something more than use her brilliance just for tests and essays. Annie felt a sense of accomplishment overwhelm her, and Lionel next to her seemed to make it even more apparent.

"I just hope they don't find out, because Rose would bloody murder us." Lionel laughed as Annie shushed him.

The castle grew silent once again when the two left and walked up the staircase.


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own any of these characters, J.K Rowling does**.

_Except for Annie and Lionel, that is._

_Thank you, everyone who has commented and alerted on this story! I'm happy you guys like it. I hope you like this chapter as well, sorry it's so late._

Annie Noble believed firmly that her plan was going to work. It was something that would not stray her from her task, because she spent two nights in the library studying simple persuasion charms. She was adamant that Scorpius would always find that after speaking to Annie or Lionel, he would suddenly need to speak to Rose. And while one may wonder if it was hard for him to find her, well, Annie left that up to Scorpius' ability to deduct Rose's whereabouts.

"So we have to charm him before he realizes?" Lionel asked her in Transfiguration the next day.

"Of course." She whispered and looked up at him, her eyes burning into his underneath dark bangs of hair. "We don't want to be caught do we?"

"Yeah." Lionel said, returning to the hedgehog he was unsuccessfully turning into a teapot.

"Besides, it's just like you said, Rose would kill us." Annie nodded as her hedgehog turned into a perfectly green teapot.

Lionel stared on in silence and envy. She took that as agreeing, and turned to help him.

Rose Weasley seemed to do nothing but stare into empty space lately. She would gaze with a strange look and smile randomly. Annie would look at her with a knowing and amused eye. Lionel would look a little smug, whereas Albus began to freak out.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" he asked, turning to Lionel.

"I don't know, mate. She looks like she's got a crush." Lionel said.

Annie looked up from her parchment a moment, seeing Albus' reaction. The boy noticed and turned to her.

"You know something don't you?" Albus asked.

"What's wrong with her liking someone?" Annie dipped her quill in ink and continued to write, not even looking up.

She did not do well with confrontation, especially with Albus because he had this way of making you talk. Just like James, she thought, rolling her eyes at the thought.

He became flustered, and looked on at his cousin in confusion and worry. "She's not the same. Who is it?" he spat out, jumping down from the couch to sit next to Annie on the floor.

Annie raised an eyebrow, and laid her quill on the table. "I am not inclined to tell you, Al." she said.

The boy groaned, "Come on, I just want to know so I can beat some sense into the guy. He might hurt her."

"What makes you so bloody sure?" Annie growled.

Lionel suddenly spoke, his voice loud and interrupting. "Hey, guys. What does it even matter? C'mon Al, let's go to the window seat and play some wizard chess." He said.

Albus looked once more between Annie and Rose, and then stood. He huffed out a frustrated breath and walked to the window. Lionel gave Annie a look that could only be described as, 'can't-help-it-mate' and walked after him.

Annie looked at her half finished Charms essay and groaned. Albus was one of her best friends, but he was overprotective and tended to be clumsy when dealing with secrets.

She knew that he might tell Rose. After all, she and Albus were cousins and saw each other all the time. It made her nervous, and the fact that they were excluding him just made it worse.

The next morning Scorpius was sitting down for breakfast at the Slytherin dining table. But he barely touched his food. Instead, he continued to tune out his fellow classmates and gaze over at the Gryffindors. At least, one in particular.

Rose sat next to Albus, focusing on a story he was telling that seemed to involve a lot of hand movements. He wanted to be there with her, hearing the story as they sat next to each other. He wanted to feel her firmly beside him and see her shoulders shake with laughter. His eyes wandered until they met Annie's. She was looking right at him, a knowing smile on her face.

Scorpius felt his face go red and quickly stood up. He walked out of the dining hall to pace a small hallway off to the right of the doorway and wonder what she knew. Did he know they were seeing each other in the library almost every night?

Did it matter?

He stopped, and stood for a moment in silence. The echo from the Dining Hall was the only thing he could hear. Why did he care so much in the first place? It was something that began to echo in his mind ever since the day in the library, where, for some strange reason he saw something beautiful in the way Rose Weasley flustered about. He always saw her so collected, and despite being Albus' friend, he barely saw her without an arch of the eyebrow, or a grimacing stare to show that somehow, they did not get along as well as Albus liked.

But things were changing; He could feel it when he looked at her.

"Fortis Blanditium." Annie whispered, her wand making a swirling motion as she practiced. "And then I just mention something to make him think he has to find her."

"So, just her name would do the trick I suppose." Lionel said.

"Yeah, this spell should work a little better than the other one I hope." Annie closed the book in front of her and looked up at the boy in front of her.

"I think it's perfectly brilliant, Annie." Lionel grinned, taking up his wand and copying her movements.

She thought of how Lionel would look at her, and wondered what he would think. Sure, he teased her all the time about liking her. But, did he really?

She shook her head, closing her eyes, and felt a wave of tiredness wash over her.

Annie felt a strange aching in her chest as she pushed aside those thoughts of Lionel standing next to her in the dark corridor.

Rose and Scorpius were real, she reminded herself.

They mattered more because they were possible. She looked at him as he mastered the wand movements, and thought of the time in first year when they had all met on the train and became friends. Sure, Lionel was considerably cocky about his skills in magic, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his magical career. He'd told her the moment he met her that he wanted to work in the Ministry of Magic, working with Muggle Studies.

Annie had laughed, because she came from a muggle family. She was the first witch born into the history of her family. Her mother was ecstatic and accepted it immediately. It was something of a relief to Annie because her mother loved fairy tales and would often tell Annie about the supernatural things of the world.

Annie just didn't know she was a part of it until she turned eleven.

"Annie!" Lionel called. He was sitting closely next to her, one hand on her arm and the other waving in front of her eyes.

She had been lost in thought, and there he was with his blonde hair ad his glasses staring at her with a look that was amusement and frustration all mixed in one. It made her heart pound against her chest and heat flushed through her body, all the way to her toes.

"What?" she asked.

"I finished learning the spell, and you just sit there with a right dumb look on your face." He said, his voice a lot deeper than it was on the day they met on the train. "What's got you so deep in thoughts anyway?"

Annie tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear in a moment of flustered silence. She looked at him with a curious look on her face that he liked more than he should and he put up his hands in defeat.

"Understood. I do not want to know." Lionel laughed and his eyebrows shot up as though he knew something she didn't.

"Let's just get them alone again, huh?" Annie quickly responded, gathering her books and depositing them in her bag.

"Wait, now?"

"Yes, now."

She helped him to his feet and they walked out of the dormitory together, where they would find Scorpius with Albus in the Great Hall. Together, they sat with them and engaged in harmless conversation. Soon, Annie stood up to leave, and from a concealed spot of the hall, she directed the spell at Scorpius.

"Fortis Blanditium." She whispered, and proceeded with the wand movements. "Rose Weasley." and then flicked her wand in the direction of his head, which proceeded to complete the charm.

There was a moment when he seemed to gaze off into the distance and his posture turned a little more relaxed. He suddenly stood up, looking down at Albus and Lionel with a look of apology in his eyes.

"I have to go to the library guys, I'll see you tomorrow okay? I forgot about some readings I have to do." Scorpius said.

Albus groaned. "C'mon Scorp, you do this all the time mate."

"Won't do it again." Scorpius yelled out as he walked away.

Albus turned to Lionel then, his eyebrows wrinkled in annoyance. "How many times has he said that, now?" He jokingly asked.

Scorpius felt the sudden and persistent urge to see Rose, and his footsteps were echoing loudly against the stone walls of the castle. The girl was always in the library, something he knew for a fact. He smirked, the thought of her sitting over a book amusing. She would have her curly hair cascading down around her head and onto the table, a curtain around her face. Her lip would be tucked neatly underneath the other in concentration as well.

And it was like this, that he found her.

"Hey." He seemed to sigh. It was a strange relief to see her, as though he would not be content until he did.

She looked up, her eyes glassed over from being called to the real world again. "Hi." She said, her voice cracking for a moment.

Scorpius sat down across from her, the chair scraping along the floor a little loudly. He winced, but sat down nonetheless. Rose laughed silently at him.

"What are you doing, tonight?" she asked.

They had spent the past few evenings in the library together. They would talk, or they would sit in comfortable silence as they studied. It seemed to come as easy to them as breathing.

"Well, I had to get some reading done." Scorpius explained.

She raised an eyebrow. "Where are your books?" she asked.

He looked around, and her look of amusement was not lost to him. It annoyed him, but at the same time he wanted her to look at him like that a lot more. She was smiling at him.

"Okay." Scorpius leaned back into his chair. "I am actually here 'cause I wanted to see you."

Rose looked down at her book then, her bottom lip disappearing once more underneath the top. She seemed to be smiling, but he could not be sure. Was she annoyed at him?

"Why did you want to see me?" she asked.

Scorpius decided that despite his many interactions with girls, it was a lot easier to say these kind of things with them than it was with Rose. He realized that it felt more real, and she mattered. It mattered if she did not speak to him, or if she stopped glancing at him with looks of curiosity. He'd noticed, and it made him feel so warm inside whenever she did it that he did not mind in the least.

"I don't know. You're just…more interesting than everyone else." Scorpius said.

"Interesting?" Rose laughed.

"Well, you're not like any of the other girls."

She turned bright red at this. "Well, Scorpius Malfoy, you're not like any of the other boys." She said.

He smiled despite his stomach twisting in knots. He liked her, he decided. He liked her a lot. This thought made him reach over the table at her hands. They were nervously playing with the pages of the book, and she looked up when he stilled them. A shock of warmth went through her and did not help her blush.

They sat like that for a minute with their hands touching and looking at each other with a strange curiosity. Rose felt happy, with his hand over hers. She didn't think she would ever be holding hands with Scorpius Malfoy, and it made her feel like she had done something forbidden but not unwanted. She liked him, she thought. She liked him a lot.

The librarian found them soon, and shooed them out of the library. It was almost curfew, and together they walked out. Scorpius held her hand as they walked through the halls. He was walking her back to the Gryffindor dormitory when they heard a large clanging noise behind them.

They both turned, surprised to see a suit of armor falling to the floor and a flustered Lionel attached to the breastplate. Annie stood behind him, anger already showing on her face.

"What are you two doing?" Rose asked, immediately snatching her hand away from Scorpius.

Annie looked on in shock, and then that melted away to embarrassment. She laughed nervously, and helped Lionel move away from the armor.

"Nothing, really." Annie said.

"Hiding behind suits of armor?" Scorpius asked, his eyebrow turning up in suspicion.

Annie's face turned to dread. Lionel looked at her and then at Rose and Scorpius.

"I was just trying to snog her."Lionel lied. "She kind of freaked out and pushed me into the armor."

"Lionel, seriously?" Annie shouted, pushing him for real this time.

He stumbled forward into the armor again, and the crash made them all wince. A professor would be along soon.

"Hey Annie, don't tell me you didn't want it at least a little bit." Lionel said.

"Shut up, you prat." Annie cried.

Rose crossed her arms, becoming frustrated. She didn't like that they were acting so strangely lately. They actually seemed to be getting along. It made her wonder if what Lionel said was true, although she highly doubted Lionel would ever try to kiss Annie unless he wanted to die a painful death.

She turned to Scorpius and shrugged. "Sorry." She said.

He smiled. "Don't worry about it." He said. "Hey, the next Hogsmeade trip, did you want to go with me?"

Rose grinned, "Yeah, sure." She said.

Annie and Lionel looked at the couple, and then at each other with a silent smile. They exchanged looks of achievement that Scorpius did not overlook as he turned away from Rose. It was as though they shared a secret, and he glared at them suspiciously as he walked away. The two of them waved as he walked, and then turned around to face Rose.

Rose noticed their mischievousness as well. She would find out what was going on because Annie would tell her. Especially if it had to do with Lionel.

"So, are you two getting on then?" Lionel asked, a wide smile on his face.

It was Rose that pushed him then, and hers and Annie's laughter could be heard resounding through the corridor.


End file.
